UPI – In a heartwarming incident, a pilot extended a helping hand to reunite an American Girl doll with its young owner, after it was inadvertently left behind at a Tokyo airport.

The heart-tugging tale unfolds when Rudy and Celeste Dominguez, upon their return to the United States (US) from a family vacation in Bali, Indonesia, make a disheartening discovery – their nine-year-old daughter Valentina’s cherished doll, Beatrice, was nowhere to be found.

The doll’s last known location was aboard a plane during the family’s layover in Tokyo.

“We checked our bags to see if maybe she was in there but we all remembered seeing her on the plane so once we did the search, didn’t find her, we called the airline and then we sent an e-mail to the airline looking for her,” Rudy Dominguez told Good Morning America.

Valentina Dominguez said Beatrice is her favourite toy. “She brings me happiness and she’s my best friend,” she said. “When she was missing, when we got settled into our hotel, I felt very bad. I felt like my heart was broken.”

The parents posted about the lost doll on Facebook, and the post came to the attention of James Danen, an American Airlines pilot based out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Danen reached out to Turkish Airlines’ lost-and-found at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and was able to locate Beatrice. He personally escorted the doll across the globe, snapping photos for Valentina at various airports along the way.

Danen delivered the doll to the girl in person this week. “I felt over the moon,” Valentina said.

“I knew Beatrice was gonna be mad at me but I was happy that I could see her again.”

Danen said he was happy to make the reunion possible. “I was really glad I could do something nice for somebody,” he told WFAA-TV.

CANBERRA (XINHUA) – Australian Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said he is “confident” the nation is prepared for the upcoming bushfire season despite warnings of a significant threat.

The minister hosted his counterparts from state and territory governments on Friday for a briefing from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and Natural Emergency Management Agency on the summer bushfire outlook.

Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Watt said Australians should not panick about the threat.

“While we are looking at a more significant risk of fire this year than we’ve seen in recent years, in many parts of Australia what that really means is returning to a normal fire risk and emerging from those La Nina wet conditions that we’ve been through the last couple of years,” he said.

“I am confident that we are well-prepared as a country for the fire risks that we will face this season.”

The Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC) released its own outlook on Wednesday, urging rural communities to prepare for the most significant bushfire season since the devastating 2019-2020 Black Summer. More than 240,000 square kilometres were burnt during the 2019-2020 season, and much of the country was blanketed in heavy smoke.

CHICAGO (AP) – Two women were injured yesterday in a shooting during a White Sox baseball game at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Chicago police said a 42-year-old woman sustained a gunshot wound to the leg, and a 26-year-old woman had a graze wound to her abdomen. The 42-year-old woman was in fair condition at University of Chicago Medical Center. The 26-year-old woman refused medical attention, according to the police statement.

Chicago police said its information is still preliminary because detectives are investigating.

“Upon receiving notification of this incident, Chicago Police Department responded immediately and deployed additional resources while coordinating with White Sox security to maintain the safety of those who were in attendance or working at the game,” the police said in its statement. “At no time was it believed there was an active threat.”

According to the White Sox, investigators aren’t sure if shots were fired from outside or inside the ballpark. The injuries were sustained midway up Section 161 in left-centre field.

“While the police continue to investigate, White Sox security confirms that this incident did not involve an altercation of any kind,” the team said in its statement.

“The White Sox are thinking of the victims at this time and wishing them a speedy recovery.”

Major League Baseball did not provide any details, but said it was in contact with the team and Chicago police.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, UNITED STATES (AFP) – NASA and SpaceX yesterday sent the next crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

Dubbed Crew-7, the mission will be commanded by American Jasmin Moghbeli and includes Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Satoshi Furukawa of Japan and Konstantin Borisov of Russia.

Liftoff on 3:27 am (0727 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a backup opportunity today.

The launch was pushed back to yesterday to give engineers an extra day to review a component of the Crew Dragon capsule’s environmental control and life support system, NASA said in a blog post.

It will be the first space mission for both Moghbeli and Borisov.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember,” said Moghbeli, a Naval test pilot, during a media call last month.

“One of the things I’m most excited about is looking back at our beautiful planet,” added the 40-year-old of Iranian heritage.

“Everyone who I’ve talked to who has flown already has said that was a life-changing perspective – and also floating around in space, it seems really fun.”

Crew-7 is set to be the seventh routine mission to the orbital platform for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with the first coming in 2020.

ATHENS, GREECE (AP) – Greek fire department officials arrested two men yesterday for allegedly deliberately starting wildfires as hundreds of firefighters battle blazes that have been blamed for 21 deaths.

One man was arrested on Evia for allegedly deliberately setting fire to dried grass in the  island’s Karystos area. The fire department said the man confessed to having set four other fires in the area in July and August.

A second man was arrested in the Larissa area in central Greece, also for allegedly deliberately setting fire to dried vegetation. Judicial authorities were informed in both cases.

Officials have said arson has been to blame for several fires in Greece over the past week, although it is still unclear what sparked the country’s largest blazes, including one in the northeastern region of Evros and Alexandroupolis where nearly all the fire-attributed deaths have occurred, and another on the fringes of Athens. “Some arsonists are setting fires, endangering forests, property and above all human lives,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Thursday.

“What is happening is not just unacceptable but despicable and criminal.”

The minister said nine fires had been set in the space of four hours on Thursday morning in the Avlona area in the northern foothills of Mount Parnitha, a mountain on the northwestern fringes of Athens that is one of the capital’s last green areas.

A major fire was already burning on the southern side of the mountain at the time, and continued burning yesterday.

“You are committing a crime against the country,” Kikilias said. “We will find you. You will be held accountable to justice.” Later that day, police arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of arson for allegedly setting at least three fires in the Avlona area.

A search of his home revealed kindling, a fire torch gun and pine needles, police said.

Greece has been plagued by the daily outbreak of dozens of fires over the past week as gale-force winds and hot, dry summer conditions combine to whip up flames and hamper Mfirefighting efforts. On Friday, firefighters were tackling 111 blazes, including 59 that had broken out in the 24 hours between Thursday and Friday evening, the fire department said.

Most are tackled in the early stages, but some have grown to massive blazes that have consumed homes and vast tracts of forest.

Storms were forecast for some areas of Greece yesterday, and there were reports of lightning causing several fires near the Greek capital that were being tackled by firefighters.

LONDON (AP) – The head of trustees at the British Museum said yesterday that the museum has recovered some of the 2,000 items believed to have been stolen by an insider, but admitted that the 264-year-old institution does not have records of everything in its vast collection.

Chairman of trustees George Osborne acknowledged that the museum’s reputation has been damaged by its mishandling of the thefts, which has sparked the resignation of its director and raised questions about security and leadership.

Osborne told the BBC yesterday that 2,000 stolen items was a “very provisional figure” and staff were working to identify everything missing.

The items include gold jewellery, gemstones and antiquities as much as 3,500 years old.

None had been on public display recently.

He said the museum was working with the antiquarian community and art recovery experts to get the items back.

“We believe we’ve been the victim of thefts over a long period of time and, frankly, more could have been done to prevent them,” he said. “But I promise you this: it is a mess that we are going to clear up.”

Museum director, Hartwig Fischer, announced his resignation on Friday, apologising for failing to take seriously enough a warning from an art historian that artefacts from its collection were being sold on eBay. Deputy director, Jonathan Williams, also said he would step aside while a review of the incident is conducted.

In early 2021, British-Danish art historian and dealer Ittai Gradel contacted the Museum bosses with his suspicions, but they assured him nothing was amiss. However, at the start of this year, the museum called in London’s Metropolitan Police force.

The museum has fired a member of staff and launched legal action against them, but no arrests have been made.

LONDON (AFP) – A British court jailed three men involved in a network smuggling migrants to the United Kingdom (UK) in small boats from mainland Europe, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Briton Desmond Rice and Albanians Banet Tershana and Klodian Shenaj were jailed for up to five years at the Nottingham Crown Court in central England after pleading guilty to assisting unlawful immigration.

Tershana was “the organiser, financier and collected payment from migrants”, while Shenaj acted as “the conduit” between facilitators in Europe and the UK, the NCA’s Derek Evans said.

Rice and another Albanian, Jetmir Myrtaj, who will be sentenced on August 29, were “integral to facilitating the crossings”, Evans added.

Police are also searching for another man, who was charged and due to face trial but is believed to have fled abroad.

The group was responsible for a number of boat crossings from France and Belgium in October 2022, the NCA said.

It added that during an attempted crossing from Belgium two other men were arrested and will be prosecuted in the country.

The convictions come as the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to end the dangerous crossings across the English Channel following an uptick in arrivals in recent years.

BOSRA AL-SHAM, SYRIA (AFP) – Rare protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government showed no sign of abating on Friday with demonstrations reported in a string of towns in Daraa and Sweida provinces.

The protests began late last week after the government ended fuel subsidies, dealing a heavy blow to Syrians reeling from years of war and economic crisis.

In the Daraa province town of Bosra al-Sham, dozens of people demonstrated, openly calling for an end to Assad’s rule, an AFP correspondent said.

“We have come to the streets in Bosra al-Sham to confirm our continuation of the Syrian revolution and the demands that brought us here in 2011,” activist Ahmad Mekdad said on the sidelines of the protest. Demonstrators held placards reading: “Leave! We want to live”, and: “Silence today means the tyrant continues”.

“We will not go back on our demands for freedom, dignity and a united Syria,” Mekdad told AFP.

Activists from the Daraa Martyrs Documentation Office said similar protests were also held in at least eight other places in the province.

Daraa returned to government control in 2018 under a Russia-brokered deal with rebel fighters. It has since been wracked by insecurity, violence and dire living conditions.

Britain-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported protests in multiple Daraa province towns on Friday.In neighbouring Sweida, hundreds of people rallied in the provincial capital in the biggest demonstration since the protests began last week, the Observatory said.

Demonstrators revived slogans from the Arab Spring protests of 2011, including: “The people want the fall of the regime”, and: “Syria is ours and not the Assad family’s”, footage posted by the Suwayda24 news outlet showed.

Sweida is the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority and has been spared the worst of the violence between Assad’s Alawite-led government and mainly rebels.

In exchange for tacit support of the government, the Druze obtained exemptions from military service outside Sweida, and Syrian security services have a limited presence in the province.

Sweida has seen sporadic demonstrations over living conditions in the past. In December, one protester and a policeman were killed when security forces broke up a demonstration in the provincial capital.